11/07/2004
Pulp Echo
One of the nice things about the library system is that you can request a book on-line and they will deliver it to your local branch. This usually happens within two days. I ordered this collection of 1960's comic books and I came across these panels from issue #21 of the Fantastic Four 1963.
And now some timely words from our sponsors:
George Orwell - "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945 - - "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Adolf Hitler, In Politics/Nazism "What good fortune for those in power that people do not think".
And now some timely words from our sponsors:
George Orwell - "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945 - - "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Adolf Hitler, In Politics/Nazism "What good fortune for those in power that people do not think".
Tokyo Bound
Sayuri told me about this train station in Tokyo that about 2million people travel through every day. Dave described it as a sea of fish. He said there are streams in the masses and that everyone seems to know where they are going except new people. Sayuri is going back to Japan for the first time in 4 years. It will be interesting to hear from her how much change she observes.
11/06/2004
Guy Fawkes Day Report From Exeter
Trish reports from Exeter on Guy Fawkes day
Last night, I went with a few other Exeterites
(including a tank commander, just back from Iraq)
to witness the most frigthening thing I've seen
since I moved here.
I have suspected Brits are completely mad, but
last night confirmed it.
November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, the big firework
celebration here (I put a link at the bottom of
this email for those who know as little about
that story as I did before I moved here).
We made our way to Ottery St. Mary, a smallish
town about a 15-minute drive away. We parked in a
famer's field and joined a throng of people
heading for the town centre. We passed a HUGE
pile of trees with an effigy of The Guy at the
top, and made our way to the town square.
After lining up at a packed pub for a beer-to-go
in a plastic cup, we squoze outside to an
incredible sight. Though the square was packed
with thousands of people, shoulder-to-shoulder,
there was also a man wearing asbestos mitts
carrying a barrel on his shoulders. There were
flames shooting out of one end of the barrel as
the man careened around, racing at the crowd,
who, shrieking in fear, had to get out of his
way. The barrel was jostled out of his hands by
other carriers once in a while, who would then
take their turn terrifying the masses.
Only in England could this possibly happen. There
were signs that said not to bring small children
to the square, but apparently Ottery children
also have their own flaming barrel event earlier
in the day.
But it wasn't over, not by a long shot. We
lemminged along after the crowd from place to
place, watching as gradually more gigantic
barrels were lit and hoisted, but generally I was
too far back in the crowd to risk personal
injury. We also went back to the fair, rode on a
ride and watched the Biggest Bonfire I've Ever
Seen for a while.
But then came the last and biggest barrel of the
night. This was back in the main square and the
numbers had swelled to something like four
thousand people (this is a TINY square, we were
jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder.) We decided to
stand at the edge of the square near the
storefronts, partly because the curb would give
us a better view and partly because we thought
there would then be enough people in front of us
to absorb any sparks and flames that might shoot
our way.
What we hadn't counted on was the fact that we
were also going to get the most squashed as
people in front of us (i.e. everyone) lurched out
of the way of the barrel rollers.
The announcer was fantastic. In a dead-serious
tone, he shouted things like "please move out of
the way of the barrel, it's extremely dangerous".
And as the barrel refused to die, things like
"This is an incredible barrel." Each time the
flames in the barrel went out, the rollers would
put the thing down, douse it with gasoline or
something, watch it flare up and hoist it again,
to the comment "Will the phoenix rise again?" and
overjoyed screams of the crowd as the flames shot
toward them.
This went on for a good fifteen minutes. As the
barrel slowly became a skeleton of metal hoops
and burned-through wooden pieces, it came
hurtling directly toward us. People lunged out of
the way as the barrel dropped right in front of
my companions (I was sheilded by a Very Tall Guy,
fortunately), flaming pieces of wood falling all
around as people fell and were dragged out of the
way. One girl in my group got her Nice Suede
Boots quite singed. The barrel wasn't quite done
yet though, and was hauled away for one final
circuit.
It was more than a bit terrifying.
We Exeterites were quite done after that and
headed out of the square, along with thousands of
other people, getting squashed in the bottleneck
at the edge. I have been to all kinds of
people-dense events but have never been as
compressed by a crowd as I was last night.
I can still taste the tar-smoke, one shower and
24 hours later...
And the fireworks still blaze all around me
tonight.
and here's All About The Guy, as promised:
I have been told the Stilton cheese-rolling
competition next spring is less death-defying but
nearly as much fun to watch. Maybe I'll have
recovered by then and be up for another English
celebration...
Mad, I tell you. All of them.
Trish
11/05/2004
First Born
I found this book in the library by Lynda Barry called One Hundred Demons It's a really great set of short story comic strips. Some of them are very sad. She's really good at getting to the heart of emotional pain. The One Hundred Demons as the book explains are born out a Zen exercise in which you draw your demons one at a time to exorcise them. Sounded fun enough to me so here's Fury whose been making a show lately whenever those F*^&^ people upstairs wake me up at two in the morning. Oh and they're supposed to come out spontaneously.
My Obsession
It all began when I was a child in the 1970's when my grandmother gave me a stamp book of all the president's of the United States from Washington through to Gerald Ford who held office at the time. Each page had a scene to colour and a little biography. I particularily remember the picture of James Garfield being assassinated. The pictures were line drawings that you could colour and in contrast the stamps that you pasted on each page were colourful paintings. So at the age of seven I knew the names of all the Presidents and a dollop of information about each. My mother had a copy of the newspaper that came out the day Kennedy was shot. It was wrapped in plastic and kept in the towel closet. She showed it to me once and explained to me that she could remember the exact moment that it happened. "It was such a shock and so sad". Around this time Nixon was on television. It was the time of the Watergate trials. I watched some of that. I was obsessed with the murdered Presidents and the corruption that surrounded Nixon. At the time it was never clear to me what he had done. They never seemed to get to the point. All I knew was that he looked like a crook because he scowled a lot and I wanted to get to the bottom of why he was on TV everyday.
I also remember when Jimmy Carter came to office. The likeable Peanut Farmer. At the time I couldn't understand why he was replaced by Reagan. Carter seemed like a good man, an intelligent man, but Reagan scared me with all his threatening posturing and the way he talked to everyone as if they were children. I remember watching the news with my cousins in Dollard and my uncle said "He's a warmonger." What a scary and powerful word. WARMONGER. As I entered my teens the arms race and US Soviet politics centered into my consciousness. The Sandinistas had overthrown the tyrannical government in Nicaragua. It seemed like a good thing, but I was amazed as I saw the reaction from the US. I followed the news of the atrocities mounted in Central America prompted by American counter-intelligence. I think this was the beginning of my understanding that America didn't play by the same rules as the rest of us. It was the first time I felt that the American ideals that I learned about justice, freedom and democracy, didn't quite translate into the real world.
By this time my obsession with American politics and was well formed. One of my al time favourite books is even called USA. It's actualy three books by John Dos Passos that are an amazing history and social analysis of the USA as told through the lives of individuals. There was and is this unending tension between admiration for the ideals and values (yes values "they" don't own that word) and loathing of the blind Rambo kind of patriotism and anger at the abuse of power. So it's hard for me to turn off the news or not sift through the endless amount of information on the net, but for all the loathing I felt during of the Reagan/Bush years, I never felt the utter bleakness and outright nervousness that I do now. Watching what is happening now ... It's like watching a lizard eat your kitten.
I also remember when Jimmy Carter came to office. The likeable Peanut Farmer. At the time I couldn't understand why he was replaced by Reagan. Carter seemed like a good man, an intelligent man, but Reagan scared me with all his threatening posturing and the way he talked to everyone as if they were children. I remember watching the news with my cousins in Dollard and my uncle said "He's a warmonger." What a scary and powerful word. WARMONGER. As I entered my teens the arms race and US Soviet politics centered into my consciousness. The Sandinistas had overthrown the tyrannical government in Nicaragua. It seemed like a good thing, but I was amazed as I saw the reaction from the US. I followed the news of the atrocities mounted in Central America prompted by American counter-intelligence. I think this was the beginning of my understanding that America didn't play by the same rules as the rest of us. It was the first time I felt that the American ideals that I learned about justice, freedom and democracy, didn't quite translate into the real world.
By this time my obsession with American politics and was well formed. One of my al time favourite books is even called USA. It's actualy three books by John Dos Passos that are an amazing history and social analysis of the USA as told through the lives of individuals. There was and is this unending tension between admiration for the ideals and values (yes values "they" don't own that word) and loathing of the blind Rambo kind of patriotism and anger at the abuse of power. So it's hard for me to turn off the news or not sift through the endless amount of information on the net, but for all the loathing I felt during of the Reagan/Bush years, I never felt the utter bleakness and outright nervousness that I do now. Watching what is happening now ... It's like watching a lizard eat your kitten.
Rude Awakening
I'm up thanks to my rude neighbours who only seem to sleep if I'm woken up in the dead of night to bang on the ceiling reminding them they are not alone in the universe. Anyway it just occurred to me that it was no fluke that the Passion of the Christ was a mega-hit. Now I will try to get back to sleep since my message to those above seems to have been received.
11/04/2004
Gnawing in the Dark
All day long I've felt nauseous. I associated this with Bush winning the election. It makes me ill to even have to write that, but as I lay down to sleep I realized that there was something ese that was bothering. Something was different that was growing, expanding inside me. Something that I didn't recognize nor know what to do with. When Bush became president in 2000 there was a sense that the democratic process had been circumvented. It was easy to blame Bush and his cadre for making poor decisions while feeling that the American people had been hoodwinked. There was a frame of mind that saw the White House as having been occupied rather than earned.
It's not like that now. There is no excuse. He won the majority. He had four years to prove what he stood for and to be judged on his actions. As I lay in the dark it came to me that what was bothering was not so much Bush being in the White House itself, I'd grown use to that, but the feeling that there is this vast army of people who support him. They were always there of course, but now they are visible in a way they weren't before. It's easy to blame a hand full of men for the trouble they cause, for ill-informed policy, for incompetent action, but how do you blame 50,000,000 people for justifying this. How do you deal with 50,000,000 George Bushs?
I think it's time for me to take a break from this issue, or at least to step back a bit. It's really too exhausting. Time for some art. Drawing , painting, writing. Time to funnel all that energy into creative things.
It's not like that now. There is no excuse. He won the majority. He had four years to prove what he stood for and to be judged on his actions. As I lay in the dark it came to me that what was bothering was not so much Bush being in the White House itself, I'd grown use to that, but the feeling that there is this vast army of people who support him. They were always there of course, but now they are visible in a way they weren't before. It's easy to blame a hand full of men for the trouble they cause, for ill-informed policy, for incompetent action, but how do you blame 50,000,000 people for justifying this. How do you deal with 50,000,000 George Bushs?
I think it's time for me to take a break from this issue, or at least to step back a bit. It's really too exhausting. Time for some art. Drawing , painting, writing. Time to funnel all that energy into creative things.
11/03/2004
Beyond the Reality Based Community
It's always nice to have someone sum up your bitterness for you and this piece titled More 'them' than 'us' by Eric Alterman does a pretty good job even if it is on MSNBC. The reference to "reality based" community comes from a recent and frequently referenced article in the New York Times in which journalist Ron Suskind reports the words of a Bush aide who in short says that the neo-conservatives don't have to deal with reality because they create their own reality and their supporters accept that reality. In a sense they weave illusions that make them look good to those who don't care about the facts. That's probably a crude summary but that is the essence of it.
Not Mr. Bush. He is as unwavering as a hunk of granite. He knows what is right and wrong not just for himself but for all of us. There is evil and there is good. You are with us or against us. You are Christian or you are ??? the infamous 'other'. So America now has its prophet of the binary world who offers security not just from terrorists but from the threat of DOUBT. The burdens of reality can be set aside. There's only one book you need. Only one path you have to follow. Only one way to see the world and once you realize that everything will be so much easier.
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''What scare me is that it appears that there is a large amount of truth (ironically), to this statement given the election results. In some ways I think I know these people having spent enough time with people who don't want to know about the world or have to think about anything that contradicts or complicates the world view handed down to them. People like boundaries to be fixed. They want good guys and bad guys. They want boys and girls, they want a universe that has an edge and a 'book' that has all the answers. They want order in creation and the God they believe in is on their side. Liberals are evil because they see that boundaries shift, they see that labels can be arbitrary, they question the place and origins of things. They talk of nuance , ambiguity, complexities and my GOD even of DOUBT.
Not Mr. Bush. He is as unwavering as a hunk of granite. He knows what is right and wrong not just for himself but for all of us. There is evil and there is good. You are with us or against us. You are Christian or you are ??? the infamous 'other'. So America now has its prophet of the binary world who offers security not just from terrorists but from the threat of DOUBT. The burdens of reality can be set aside. There's only one book you need. Only one path you have to follow. Only one way to see the world and once you realize that everything will be so much easier.
Some Numbers
There are approximately 200 million eligible US voters.
Yesterday close to 114,000,000 voted. So that means about 43% of people who could have voted didn't and this was the highest turn out in years.
Yesterday close to 114,000,000 voted. So that means about 43% of people who could have voted didn't and this was the highest turn out in years.
Pondering
Why is it that the Bush runs a seemingly succesful campaign based on the threat of terrorism is thoroughly rejected by the people who actually suffered the attacks in 2001? Perhaps it is the "family values" issues and such that really made the difference. Who the f&*k knows at this point. In any case if New Yorkers can give the Democrats 59% and Washington D.C. an astounding 90% how dare he use the horrible events of 9/11 as if he owned them.
I have to just keep reminding myself I'm a Canadian today.
I have to just keep reminding myself I'm a Canadian today.
For What it's Worth
If you look at an election map it's interesting to see that almost all of the states that share a border with Canada went Democrat. So what's your problem Ohio.
Quotes
I snagged that Mark Twain quote from ThinkExist and this is their list of top 15 authors from which people select quotes. It's comforting to know that Eddie Izzard is chosen more often than George W. But come to think of it they may be quoting Bush's eccentric speech for laughs.
1. Bible
2. Mark Twain
3. Eddie Izzard
4. Homer Simpson
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Abraham Lincoln
7. Winston Churchill
8. Albert Einstein
9. George Carlin
10. Dr. Seuss
11. Kurt Cobain
12. Yogi Berra
13. George Bush
14. Monty Python
15. Bob Marley
1. Bible
2. Mark Twain
3. Eddie Izzard
4. Homer Simpson
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Abraham Lincoln
7. Winston Churchill
8. Albert Einstein
9. George Carlin
10. Dr. Seuss
11. Kurt Cobain
12. Yogi Berra
13. George Bush
14. Monty Python
15. Bob Marley
"It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." Mark Twain
At this point it looks grim. To say I am disappointed and disillusioned is an understatement. Last night over 50 million Americans justified George Bush's politics of fearmongering, deceit and hypocrisy. That's not hyperbole, that's a fact. I really felt that Kerry would win. It made sense to me that people would feel betrayed by Bush and realize what a mess he's made of everything he touches, but I live in Canada where we are guided by moderation (okay except for beer and hockey).
Looking at the election outcome I propose that California keep an option open to become an independent nation and that the North East states join Canada in an Economic Union.
As for the rest of the country, I can hardly look you in the eye. Who are you? We are clearly strangers.
Looking at the election outcome I propose that California keep an option open to become an independent nation and that the North East states join Canada in an Economic Union.
As for the rest of the country, I can hardly look you in the eye. Who are you? We are clearly strangers.
