Updated
drip.
drip.
drip.
*drip.drip.*
*drip.drip.*
*plunk*
Jun 27, 2006
Later.
I have, at last, come across a small community of fellow procrastinators. How I long to break bread, share our near-misses, engage about how our habits keep us one step from the edge of losing too much that matters to us, and perhaps, even, find ways to get through and past this to a more directed, useful existence.
How nice it would be to convene, be not alone in this affliction, find community in this solitary trait. How I could just pick up the phone and easily make that happen.
Maybe later.
Jun 25, 2006
Blah.
In the forever barrage of endless, useless media, I've pretty much checked out. I don't read the news anymore. I don't read blogs at all anymore. And I don't have cable, so I am stuck with the insufferable, subpalpable pulp they feed you on network TV. So you have little rehash of the news here, and really, little of anything else.
I have been thinking about what I want to do with my training, and with my energy. I want to stay positive about change, about committing myself to something I can care about for the long-term. Something that releases me from the unnecessary distractions of personal achievement, and/or ego. Something that allows me to grow with a community.
I've grown deeply tired of the endless bartering of positions, and stakes, for communities by people who don't give a damn about what happens in the end. Faceless, baseless politicians, national think tanks and "policy" groups, and the whole lot of groups that don't speak to local stakeholders, nor dig in long enough on issues to watch and learn how they evolve and peel away at the lives of simple Americans trying to live.
I am tired of white liberal America, wherever and whatever that is. They are too busy trying to stake a safe ground to even issue statements that would be deemed "PC" (and I hate that constructed, fake, conservative term with a passion) by their emboldened opponents. The rabid right aren't afraid. And you know what? The white liberals have always been aware that the closet racists and xenophobes in their camp are not isolated. And they know that the not-so-happy contingent will come out and speak in their privileged circles away from the press and the microphones. To the point where liberal = an uneasy coalition of people who still harbor their range of untrained, under-exposed, biased opinions and privileges. While I don't think that the Democrats are anywhere close to liberal, I definitely don't think that liberals are all that hot either. And the coalition of separate interests, bruised egos, and personal ambitions make it more a group without vision, or the ability to forge a vision in the smithy of collective passions.
I am tired of the bitter, raging, and almost always negative progressives and radicals of color. The world and system are fucked up. Stop bitching. Fix that shit. And stop screaming about all the people who aren't conscious yet. The movable middle will not be moved by threats, doomsday, or insults. Heart moves people. Personal connections move people. Not re-spewed rhetoric and statements like "they're fucked up. What are you doing?!"
Anyway - not that I'm in a great position to bitch about people, but *sigh* Need a little positivity in light of all that's here. Life is short, and staying in this for as long as we can has to be worth it in some way - we have to feel like we're in a movement, that moves people. And a movement that is uplifting, a conscious party to change things and revive the spirit of possibility. I'm in this work and this life because of the personal connections that brought me here, and the spirit of ancestors - not only my own - that have struggled and won. And I can't dishonor their memory with dreams only of doom. We have work to do, enit?
Aww, whatever. It's Sunday, and the world is watching World Cup. Força!
Not Your Soldier. "Sir! No, Sir!"
Check it - alt.media with a punch. If you know someone who's thinking about signing up for this two-way genocidal war, this is a good, direct, and straight up piece that gets to the heart of why young folks should stand up and say no.
Apparently, there's a film called "Sir, No Sir!" that talks about the massive protests and acts of rebellion in Viet Nam by the soldiers themselves.
In these dark times, keep strong. Fuck this fucking war.
Jun 13, 2006
Sad story from Va.
Not my own - still maintaining, and feeling solid about summer. Just sending anyone who sees this who isn't already a reader of PTR to check out this sad story about a real-life, and perhaps not immediately identifiable consequence of the anti-immigrant legislation and policies that plague state and federal government.
It is sobering that these stories are not isolated, which we can piece together simply from the accounts we read on various list servs. And the question always remains - how many more are out there?
***
*sigh* The world keeps on spinning, and humans continue to fuck one thing or another up for ourselves, our co-inhabitants of the planet, and future generations to come. I guess I'm feeling a little glum that human intervention and action will prove to be the one scar that the planet will not be able to heal itself from, unlike the many natural catastrophes that have wreaked havoc in millennia past. Maybe I should stop listening to depressing music (or watching Al Gore on the big screen!).
Bruce Springsteen Shows.
In my ongoing fascination with this modern-day voice of the American conscience that has felt subsumed by the politics of the day, I just found out that AOL Music and Bruce have worked out a way to see one performance from each of his shows in the United States during this tour. At the end of the 5-week stretch, he'll have posted 18 performances. We're actually also getting emails with exclusive tracks that he's recorded since the Seeger Sessions CD came out - including a touching version of "Bring 'Em Home" about the troops that was first sung about the American War in Viet Nam by Seeger.
Anyway - check out this link when you get a chance. Trust me, you may think that Bruce Springsteen is about something else - the "Born in the U.S.A." syndrome, as we like to call it, but even that song was something different from what people think: it was about a veteran returning to the U.S. after fighting a war, and being left out and forgotten. His later renditions of the song, acoustic, and in the mode of the Ghost of Tom Joad, approaches the true soul of the song. Radio play got it wrong (sorta like the overblown "Every Breath You Take" - what's behind the haunting melody and artsy video? Creepiness!).
So check him out. Use Napster's new free service (which I'm really loving, by the way - especially because my iTunes remains caput, and I almost always have a high speed connection with nothing to do with it).
Desis Really *are* Everywhere.
My favorite news tidbit from the past week:
Times of India
NRIs send home a whopping $21 billion
[ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 01:09:16 am
TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: For Indians, the umbilical cord with home is never severed. India is the largest recipient of remittances by overseas workers, estimated at $21 billion -- up from almost 150% since 1995, says a study by investment bankers J P Morgan. The Indian diaspora is estimated at 20 billion. [more]
Boy. Had I known that there were that many desis around the world... more than 3 times the world's population, even, I would really feel like there are desis everywhere. I mean, daaaamn!
And in another story about this tremendous diaspora, here's an interesting piece about West Indian cricket, and the emergence of Indo-Caribbeans on the teams, starting in the fifties. It's an interesting read, but coming from an Indian paper, something tells me that the patronizing tone I sense isn't just in my imagination. Still, there are some interesting historical bits that may be of interest.
But if there are really 20 billion of us outside of India, a couple of questions:
1) How many of us are there in India?
2) And beyond that, shouldn't we have taken over all the cricket teams by now?
Jun 11, 2006
Not a music review this week, but...
Wassup mi gente. Seems like time is flipping quick. "Ain't it funny how it is? You never miss it till it's gone away... don't waste the time always searching for those wasted years." Anyway, yeah, so I'm listening to a Maiden song. But this one is actually a cover, by the rock group Damone, which in their latest album "Out Here All Night" sounds like a cross between some indy rocking woman like and Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Not to mention that they actually cover Maiden, perhaps to underline the point, as the album closer. Lush acoustic arrangement surrounded by strings... it's actually quite nice. And it reminds me of how dearly I love the original. I haven't heard the whole album by Damone, though I'm previewing some of it through Napster (they have a new "listen to songs for 5 times free" service that allows for some stuff to be previewed, which I'm definitely going to take advantage of before I buy). I have to say - they have the riff power.
Anyway - life has been good, and I'm thinking about new things to add to the site, reflect on the crazy fucked up world in which we live, and just post up some stuff that's been on my mind that I have to submit to the ether, relay to you the faithful reader, and perhaps even dialogue about. I miss the community of this space, though it's nothing like the huge spaces out there, there were a handful of beautiful people from whom I'd get a remark once in a while. That notice in my inbox was far more welcome than the droll - and not entirely innocuous - missives
from unknown writers and bots across the interverse.
At any rate, typing while buzzed, and ready to call it a night. But fear not, faithful and wondrous reader. I shall perhaps return again shortly, with something not entirely innocuous of my own to spread across these pages. Brown. Out.
Jun 6, 2006
Mr. Smits Goes to Washington
Wassup people. Who would have thought summer was going to be more busy than the semester? But there you have it. Didn't even know that superBonds* busted past the Bambino on the ol' tainted record books. Didn't even get a chance to post what I'm listening to (though that's been on the DL since my computer started to freak out on me).
Otherwise, can't complain. Well - hells yeah, I can complain. I watched the NCLR ALMA Awards last night, and apart from the distraction of Eva Longoria changing clothes and hairstyles between every screen shot, I was amazed that of all these Latino/a stars, only one had the balls to say something about the crazy climate in the U.S. (that I saw). That was Jimmy Smits, who continues to rise up in my assessment of mainstream actors and artists who are willing to say something about the real world and not play nice with expectations of docility.
You were being sworn in as president while your people were outside the capitol saying "si se puede." Right on Mr. Smits, right on.
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