The Big Easy
Every time I've been to and through New Orleans I've had to keep my hand on my wallet, extend and harden the outer boundary of my personal-space, and simply deal with the incredible crush of stereotypical tourists. Certainly due in part to post-Katrina realities, Bourbon Street was marvelously relaxed of a Sunday afternoon. We walked around a bit, had a bite to eat, and enjoyed the Quarter in repose, but didn't feel the infamous Big Easy musky sweetness until we escaped the stretch of pervasive porn purveyors and were drawn in to listen to some fabulous guitar trio blues (ala Stevie Ray) delivered on a venerable and ornately tarnished metaphorical platter by Mark Penton and the Pentones (an excellent sax player showed up and sat in) at the Funky Pirate bar. Besides the bartender, our only companions in the virtually sacramental blues extravaganza were a very drunk, very social, and marvelously Queer middle-aged man and his very straight but loving Great Nephew, who were in town for a funeral. The Uncle and Lisa danced a bit, fun was had by all, and I shall remember them fondly as part of the experience.
Afterward we returned to my classmate Victoria Hippard's lovely Uptown home just off Magazine. She lives in the high-ground "Footprint" and her house didn't sustain any storm damage. It is, as I suspected, a lovely place and very cozy, mirroring the graciousness of our hostess. Her son Daniel is in a performance of Red Sneaks by Liz Swados at the moment and loves to "Pump" (dance creatively guided by a video/scoring machine). His mostly Asian and Latino dancing buddies have given him the competition moniker "The Great White Hope" (aka Great White or GWH). Check out his YouTube appearance below.
I write this between work on my dissertation sitting in the Rue De La Course Coffee House on Magazine (free wi-fi) while Lisa and Victoria have gone to Wholefoods nearby. Tomorrow we head for Florida and a visit with Lisa's Dad.
Labels: daily, recommendation, travel, video, walkabout
| posted by Unknown @ 7/23/2007 09:02:00 AM
My earlier post dwelt mostly on the politically motivated demagoguery during the Women's Peace Conference that put me in mind of the contemporary devaluing of authentic criticism. This post attempts to range more widely and tell more of my experience of the event as a whole.
The event began with a ritual in which dozens of women (and men) carried a flag from each of the entities with U.N. recognized sovereignty and led the group antiphonally intoning "May Peace prevail in _______" for each. My mother represented the Maldives and was a bit mortified at not knowing how the country's name is pronounced. Everyone followed her lead loyally, however, wishing that Peace might prevail in Mald~..*_s. Despite the conspicuous absence of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, the whole thing was rather moving.
Dr. Nia MacKay buslted about being a most effective Director of Communications for the Conference, and took care of everyone in grand style. At one point I had the pleasure of saving the day for an Israeli delegate named Hagit who had not brought her laptop and could therefore not show her presentation. I overheard an advocate for her telling the story of her dilemma and finally offered to provide my laptop for the length of her presentation. Later she came by and graciously thanked me, after which we entered a conversation about the Conference and it's worth, during which she insisted on teaching me that there is no need for teachers. This oft repeated lesson is almost always appreciated.
Dr. Patricia Dodd from Brookhaven Community College found herself hanging out at the CRS table and blowing off steam on the first day. She had submitted a paper for consideration to present and had been sandbagged, she believes, because it made no bones about the ethnic cleansing in progress in Palestine. The Conference organizers decided in advance that they would exclude and discourage talk about the war against the people of Iraq and the current activities of Israel. This they couched in terms of being "non-partisan" which, of course, makes her irate, as she spend time in the middle east on a semi-regular basis and feels pretty alone among folks who talk about peace and then stay home.
After Betty Williams expressed her ire (see previous post) several women in the power structure stomped around as though they had received a personal affront. I suggest that nobody involved is stupid. A significant quantity of the middle aged, white, wealthy women at the helm (it is Dallas after all, and that is how moderately "progressive" things most often get done) are more and less aware of strategy and tactics, and more and less identified as activists. They knew, as they chose to be "non-partisan" and quash certain voices that every laureate would speak against the atrocities the U.S. is committing under the banner of the agenda abbreviated as "BUSH." Betty Williams was followed by Jody Williams who beat that drum as well, not till the skin was peeling back but sufficiently to let everyone know where she stands. I don't agree with where they drew their line but I'm certain it was consciously scribed.
One of the highlights in my experience of the conference was my interview with Sharon Welch, who outlined several of the more vital points of my dissertation during her keynote. If you'd like to hear it click "POSTS" on the Gcast player on the right and chose "In the Midst with Integrity"
Here is a list of authors mentioned:
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace by John Paul Lederach
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative (Indigenous Americas) by Thomas King
Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance by Gerald Vizenor
Also my mother introduced me to Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, from the South African Peace and Reconciliation process. Lovely woman with whom I'd love to speak more about her take on the psychologies of conflict currently in vogue.
Peace laureate and candidate for the Presidency of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, was a pleasure to hear, if done a profound disservice by mistranslation during her keynote.
Local guitarist, Christopher McGuire, presented an amazingly virtuosic classical guitar concert, in beautiful counterpoint with the next evening's performance by Sara Hickman who has always been a favorite of mine. In the "Blast From The Past" category, I ran into two regional theater actors from my past at the Dallas Theater Center, including Pam Hoffman who directed Tall Texas Tales and was one of my children's theater instructors even before that adolescent success.
Finally, it was my pleasure to speak with and videotape Lucy Mashua. A Kenyan who "has worked for African women throughout her life on the issues of female genital mutilation, early childhood marriage, forced abortions, human rights abuses, and the abuse of women...has worked with the International Somalia Rehabilitation Association and is a member of the United Nations Association Dallas. I will post the video to YouTube and here as well so she can use it to appeal for greater attention for her work and the women and men she wants to reach. I'll bring this post back to the top of the blog when that happens.
This post took some time to complete and is out of chronological order as a result. After the time it needs to be the lead post I will return it to it's original place in the vicinity of 7/17/07
Labels: acting, activism, audio, conference, CRS, Dallas, peace, video, walkabout
| posted by Unknown @ 7/22/2007 10:25:00 PM
Zoopy!
Nicole has struck Tennessee! Lisa's and Nicole's Uncle Jack took us to see Nicole on stage with The Zoopy Show. There will be audio tracks and video from the show. In the meantime here are some photos.
This post will take some time to complete and is out of chronological order as a result. After it has been the lead post for a bit I will return it to it's original place in the vicinity of 7/8/2007
Labels: daily, family, music, Nicole, walkabout
| posted by Unknown @ 7/22/2007 09:33:00 PM
Brave Combo and also David Gans
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Thought you might like this. | posted by Unknown @ 7/12/2007 10:07:00 PM
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Thought you might like this. | posted by Unknown @ 7/12/2007 10:07:00 PM
True criticism
We have a dilemma that is so obvious as to be almost past the point of mentioning. This necessitates mention because that kind of obvious is a next door neighbor to "that's just the way things are". I worry lest the other ways that have made us who we are (free speech, open dialogue, etc.) fade mostly into the past and personal attacks, which once upon a time marked a public figure as a desperate lightweight and not worthy of attention, fall into the place of everything that once was reserved for public and foreign policy.
It is Wikipedia which notes that "A pundit is, in contemporary English, someone who offers mass-media opinion, analysis or commentary on a particular subject area, (most typically political analysis, the social sciences or sport), on which they are presumed to be knowledgeable. As the term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities lacking special expertise, however, it can be used in a derogative manner. Pundit is also a slang term for politically biased people pretending to be neutral."
According to Richard Page, when he was recording a massive gathering for peace in Berlin during the 1980s, Huston Smith was reported as being a Moonie because he had defended their right to practice their faith. He was invited to go on the air in East Germany to respond and said that their right to practice their faith is guaranteed in our Constitution (implying he was just being a faithful American) and to construe from his statements that he is a Moonie would be like saying the Dalai Lama is a Communist because he supports communist people's right to govern themselves as they wish, while objecting as strongly as possible to their attempts to govern his people in spite of their wishes. The next day's headlines read
"The Dalai Lama is a Communist!" - Huston Smith
I'll ask him about this next time we are together because I'd love to hear the story from his lips. I'll post a recording here if I remember to take my gear.Last night at the 3rd International Womens Peace Conference in Dallas, where we (Assoc. Building Community) are audio and video recording "progressives" in progress (thanks to continuing work with Conference Recording Service), Nobel Laureate Betty Williams allowed as how violence is a choice. She lamented every pointless and horrible death on 9/11 - all 3,000+ who perished so needlessly in the Twin Towers, and the 35, 615 children around the world who died that day without notice or remark. She then talked about the responsibilities of a Nobel Laureate to stand up and tell the truth and to live with other folks' expectations. She drinks, smokes, and swears a bit and so tends to shock people who hear "Laureate" and expect Mother Theresa. It seems to her that it is easy to talk about Peace when, if you mean what you say, you should rather be living it. She is so frustrated with President Bush she'd like to kill him but obviously hasn't and made quite clear she doesn't mean literally. "How do you kill somebody non-violently?", she asked, to clarify the dilemma of keeping the natural response toward violence in check.
For a clip from my original source of what Betty Williams actually said please click on the Gcast player to your right. If you can't see it right away click on POSTS.
For a complete CD of the original recordings - audio CD or video DVD - visit conferencerecording.com and search "betty williams"
So, most of our (Richard, Lisa, and myself) today was dominated by tense running around by the more conservative upper-middle class white women who were very put out that Betty might say such a thing. One, on an errand to get a copy of the recording from us to deliver to the media, decided her time was better spent elsewhere and demanded "just give me the damn tape" when it became clear we didn't agree with her. Her main error was moving to dominate us before she actually had the recording in her hand. Later we spent hours working with Chris Salcedo (http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_193220448.html) of Channel 11, the Dallas NBC affiliate, to dig out some footage from our raw video masters. The video of the newscast from our footage is here. http://cbs11tv.com/video If it is not immediately apparent search the (if it bleeds, it leads) headline "I could kill Bush"
The issue is both honesty and flexibility of thought. Instead of talking about any of the very newsworthy things Ms. Williams said, which continue to escape coverage in most corporate media outlets, those whose power and income flourish in the presence of fear literalize and thereby purposefully misquote an obviously metaphorical but nonetheless weighty comment. This condescends both to an international public and our domestic body, dulling the potential for further authentically critical thought in the future out of habitual exposure to obvious spin for its own sake. This has ever been one of the most egregious of crimes on the part of public figures from Greece to our contemporary Capitol. Flim-flam doesn't have to be the rule. It can be the exception. Only We the People can insist on it. Call and write your purveyors of media.
Again wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy
Demagogy (Demagoguery) (from Greek δῆμος, "people", and ἄγειν, "to lead") refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes.
Labels: audio, conference, conflict, daily, peace, polis, politics
| posted by Unknown @ 7/12/2007 09:35:00 PM
Goats and Cherokees
We drove through the torrent and flood of North Texas yesterday to arrive in Cookson Oklahoma, just outside of Tahlequah.
Lisa’s grandparents, Jim and Barbara Martens live right on Lake Tenkiller surrounded by beautiful oaks, fields, and rolling wooded hills, every species of bird my grandparents Craig taught me to know
(the limit of my ornithological expertise), an entire festival of raccoons every night, 
and the beamed ceilings and paneled walls of a truly homey place that reminds me of September Song, the home on Lake Texoma to which my grandparents retired. Jim is a charming combination of dour and wry while Barbara is loquacious and charming at all times. Jim sets (different from sitting - we southern folks set), Barbara talks or reads, Lisa knits and talks, and I mostly listen when I'm not annoying Jim with genealogical questions or requests for stories.
To make this homey and relaxing visit even better I just finished polishing off three organic, cowdairyless, oatmeal cookies with an entire mug of fresh goat’s milk from Pine Lane Dairy (918-458-1504 - prop. Lisa Turner). The Turner family has Oberhasli dairy goats aplenty on their beautiful land. Barbara played tour guide as she drove us around Tahlequah and then through their crafted stone gates and past the horses, guinea hens, and ranging goats. We scored an entire gallon of fresh goat milk for $7 and a pound of almond-honey chevre for $5. They sell kids, yearlings, dry and freshened does around Easter to supplement their milk, cheeses, yogurt, whey, and (soon) soap! Considering it has a more easily digestible fat and protein content than cow milk, is better for infants, invalids, convalescents, folks with ulcers, and doesn’t require grass pastures (doing well with much less in brushlands and so many other kinds of terrain without having the environmental impact of industrial cattle production), it is no surprise that more people worldwide drink the milk of goats than any other single animal. I’d better stop before I sound too much like an advertisement. My sister, Meghan, would have approved in a big way. Goats are where it’s at, even if cow milk doesn’t make you swell up until you look like a hippo with a goiter (gosh, thanks, Lisa).
On the way to the dairy we heard from Barbara, until recently a local candidate for Cherokee Nation Council, several familiar tales from the political arena about minor candidates lining up behind major candidates playing the usual roles developing the usual themes engendering the usual gossipy spittle. Pandering politicos promising perpetual purses to persuasive people while pointing to recumbent incumbents conned into conservatism by budgetary banditry, or possibly plausible people power purveyors pushing politicians past their prime to put the populace in their primary place. Problematic, to put a point on it.
I’ll end where we began, at the Iguana, near Northeastern State University -- Go Riverhawks! They were until very recently known as the Redmen, but we try not to mention that.
The Iguana is a fabulous new coffeehouse/gathering place in Tahlequah near the campus, with wi-fi, excellent hot and cold sandwiches, and drinks. They also sell all kinds of cool stuff from elsewhere, from Buddhas, sarongs, and masks to Indonesian picture frames (on sale for $2!) two red ones of which we acquired for our new Yellow Submarine apartment walls. If Lisa has her way, and I hope she will, our place is going to be the spiffiest ever.
Though I'll have to go elsewhere to upload this to the net, I’m writing at the kitchen table in the presence of the aforementioned flora and fauna spread before me by the grace of five floor-to-ceiling windows. In short, life is good.
Labels: cafe, daily, family, travel
| posted by Unknown @ 7/03/2007 12:53:00 PM
Dreaming about dreaming
The Walk(drive)about Plan right now: we leave tomorrow for OK, then TN and KY to return on the 9th for the peace conference July 10th -16th and then head east through the south.
This morning I decided to sleep in instead of going with Mom to Sunday School. I intended to go to church, relying on Lisa to wake me when she returned from her sojourn to obtain coffee and a pastry from the Nodding Dog to shower and dress.
Shortly after we arrived in Dallas, Lisa had a moderately traumatic experience getting lost. To bookend our stay she had another, coming back from the same place, this morning. When she called me, fifteen minutes before church was scheduled to start, her morning had not gone terribly well so far. Needless to say, we missed church.
While she was losing herself I was dreaming a dream.
Click on the small arrow button above to hear the recording.
Click on the small arrow button above to hear the recording.
While she was wandering lost in the van I was dreaming of being lost on the streets of Dallas. I'm working extensively with metaphors associated with the color blue while writing my dissertation. They just keep popping up everywhere as I write toward Bluevolution". The station wagon I was driving and by which I was left was a deep, certain blue.
The questions that interest me are not the analytical/scientistic ones like "are the reality of dreams and waking reality related or not?". Rather I wonder at how they seem related and how my thinking and feeling changes when I notice the relationships that present themselves as obvious but non-linear and evocative but not subject to the scope of my capacity to comprehend.
The questions that interest me are not the analytical/scientistic ones like "are the reality of dreams and waking reality related or not?". Rather I wonder at how they seem related and how my thinking and feeling changes when I notice the relationships that present themselves as obvious but non-linear and evocative but not subject to the scope of my capacity to comprehend.
A big part of the dissertation I'm writing and community we are building has to do with shifting in perception back and forth between the literal (myths of Progress, Science, and mechanized Industrialism) and the metaphorical (myths of Soul, Humanities, Poetics). Dr. Dan Noel was convinced that the contemporary search with which many folks are identifying themselves as "spiritual but not religious" has to do with a desire for a more conscious metaphoricality in relationship to spirit and soul realms, a more purposeful fiction-consciousness that acknowledges the overlaps of the poetic, psychological, literary, spiritualigious :) , and the fundamental systemic presupposition of unconsciousness- that which may be related to through imagination but never fully known - shared by all these approaches.
In wondering in mystery, I am interested in a transition from both the power-base clergy authenticated by apostles of a dominating idea but also from the "native medicine man" sprung fully clad from the head of a colonizing Nostalgia. Both are invested by the contemporary scientistic imagination in knowing something, some sympathetic prestidigitation, that gives access to some place inaccessible to "normal" people. I wonder if Noel meant to imply not a neoshamanism, though that is the word he chose, but something less Nouveau that follows our revisioning of what is native to the spirit and soul in a contemporary contextlessness seriously lacking in nativity. I thought about referring to this imagination in creative motion as post-shamanism but heard Thomas Holcroft's admonition ringing in my ears that "The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post."Still post-shamanism might work, or how about metashamanism? The metashaman is certain to know some things that I don't, but the reverse is also guaranteed to be true. What attracts me is that she knows differently some how, in some way that I can feel at first and then understand, but which requires some sustained practice to continue deeply enough to apply. It is the way of her knowing, the art in her process that I find compelling. She moves by way of the imagination, making fiction, making community that is aware of itself dreaming its own consciousness, identity, purpose, and culture.
An additional thought.
Gom Jabarfrom wikipedia (see link above)
Noel (see above) uses the idea of Castaneda's work being "shamanovels", purposefully fictive in order to create an environment wherein imagination rules, teaches, deceives, acts culturopoetically (witness the growth of "neoshamanism") in the making of the world.
I find myself thinking of using "Gom Jabbar" as a perfect piece of terminology for a bluevolved metashamanism. It is obviously from fiction and therefore almost cannot be misinterpreted literally. It evokes a complex of images suitable to an imaginal journey into interrelated metaphors in which the kind of thinking is naturally exposed to the initiate. Very cool. This may find its way into further development.
"The gom jabbar is a fictional device appearing in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. According to Terminology of the Imperium, the glossary of the novel Dune, the gom jabbar is "The high-handed enemy; that specific poison needle tipped with meta-cyanide used by Bene Gesserit Proctors in the death-alternative test of human awareness." In Dune, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam uses a gom jabbar to test Paul Atreides just prior to his departure to Arrakis. This "humanity test" is carried out with a box that produces pain by nerve induction, causing severe pain that is strictly psychological. Only a human is considered to be able to withstand the urge to take the hand out of the box. Any person who does withdraw their hand is stung with the gom jabbar, causing instant death. Later in the novel, Paul's sister Alia uses the "Atreides gom jabbar" to kill the evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. It is also possible that the phrase Gom Jabbar may cover other methods of death with a similar aim, as Paul Muad'Dib tells Reverend Mother Helen Gaius Moheim, "I remember your gom jabbar, you remember mine. I can kill you with a word."In context between the Butlerian Jihad and presupposing the animality of humanity, the test from Frank Herbert's Dune novels implies that to be human means not only being able to endure pain but being able to suffer on purpose. A machine (outlawed after the Jihad) simply ignores pain (a contemporary virtue) and an animal simply flinches away. The human, knowing death in advance, choose suffering in order to survive metaphorically and literally. What the reviewer for wikipedia doesn't understand/state is that the "other forms of death" uses the literal needle as a metaphor for the entire process - as test, to discern and then form humanity through suffering and death, etc.
Noel (see above) uses the idea of Castaneda's work being "shamanovels", purposefully fictive in order to create an environment wherein imagination rules, teaches, deceives, acts culturopoetically (witness the growth of "neoshamanism") in the making of the world.
I find myself thinking of using "Gom Jabbar" as a perfect piece of terminology for a bluevolved metashamanism. It is obviously from fiction and therefore almost cannot be misinterpreted literally. It evokes a complex of images suitable to an imaginal journey into interrelated metaphors in which the kind of thinking is naturally exposed to the initiate. Very cool. This may find its way into further development.
Labels: culture, dream, walkabout
| posted by Unknown @ 7/01/2007 09:24:00 AM
