These times

I find it a tad depressing that my DVDs (digital films) are checked out of the public library with much greater frequency than my books are.

Still waiting for the bus to split this joint.

Doesn't surprise me

UO graduate teaching assistants go on strike http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=g35ZqXUC (from @AP)

Beat history, the Joan Anderson letter

http://time.com/3613118/joan-anderson-letter/

Hard ball

Began reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (Dunbar-Ortiz), with this premise:

"US history, as well as inherited Indigenous trauma, cannot be understood without dealing with the genocide that the United States committed against Indigenous peoples."

This is the right place to start, and this may prove to be an essential history. CJ would love it!

Last chance

Naomi Kline's THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING nails the climate change issue - and impending disaster. Republicans in power may energize a grassroots rebellion. But not enough to matter, I sadly think.

50 years ago

Thanksgiving II

A guest on Thursday, we roasted our turkey yesterday.

R.I.P. Kent Haruf

Novelisi, Plainsong. Eventide. Fine writer.

Quotation of the day

"Science is a drop, our ignorance is an ocean." --William James, 1895

Portland's glory days

TS remembers.

If it's broke, fix it ...

Spent morning replacing baking element in oven, no easy chore with as few tools as we have, but the real challenge was finding a replacement
part, finally located in Beaverton. A baker needs his oven!

H having a pretty bad weekend.

The call

Just got the only holiday call I'll get, a moment before I called her, from L in LA, sister surrogate (former lover, very Greek ha ha), just a kid when we did the tradition in the 60s, daughter of a good friend (imagine the subsequent scandal, actually very short lived). My closest living friend today. 37 at her family gathering for the holiday!

Best Thanksgivings

For me , from mid 60s to mid 70s when five couples got together, most folk musicians, for much revelry, music, laughter, and gratitude. Nothing has come close since.

Successful experiment

On a whim, I added a quarter cup of grape nuts cereal to my last wheat bread batch. Great addition! Very tasty, esp toast.

The white ostrich

http://www.alternet.org/most-white-people-america-are-completely-oblivious

Thanks to TS for pointing out this essay.

Q.E.D.

Waiting room

2 appts today ... lots of gin rummy in the waiting room.

MIT

Been thinking of a football team with 17 h.s. valedictorians on the roster - and going undefeated! Remarkable.

51 years ago

The overthrow of the U.S. government and a new era begins.

High school football

Jesuit at Tigard on radio, early playoffs. Exciting, I'm rooting for Jesuit because we go out for breakfast across the street.

##

J loses in triple OT, missed xtra pt, 42-41. Great game!

MIT's undefeated season

A football team with 17 high school valedictorians on the roster. Cal Tech never came close to this.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/11/21/mit-brilliance-has-reached-football-field/i4g21bQGz6B34rWRMqMv0J/story.html

Sounding good

Man, both Keyport Rag and Old Greasy Coat sounding first rate on the Cordoba this mirning. Angeline the Baker not far behind ... and Kitchen Girl is getting there.

And I found the ultimate challenge: an arrangenent of One Note Samba that is breath taking. If I master this - and I will - I may play it on a street corner for quarters ha ha.

French press

I see TS has discovered the French press. I came to it late myself but now each night I grind beans and soak them in the refrig overnight for my iced coffee the next day. I've settled on Peet's House Blend as my favorite bean but I experiment now and again.

Myth of progress

In 1959 tuition at UC Berkeley was a few hundred dollars a term. A true public university then, and for decades earlier. I know, I was there for a term before joining the army. Today the UC is unaffordable. Another national shame in the dying spasms of empire.

Now it's going to get real fun with science deniers calling the shots in Congress.

Bible

Quotation of the day

"We need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and production of art," Ursula K. Le Guin (from Round Bend Press).

Hear, hear!

Changes

Doctor took H off her memory drug ... hope for improvement re hallucinations.

Etc etc etc

Another terrible morning ... at least we see the doctor at 11.

R.I.P. Mike Nichols

Brilliant theatrical mind. He turned a stage play that I thought was over-rated ... Angels In America ... into a brilliant TV miniseries, now a dramatic favorite in his interpretation.

Dark and dreary

A very bad morning for H, very down, depressed, feeling hopeless and useless. Makes me appreciate my own cosmic sense of humor, coming out of Zen, but I don't know how to help her with this, so I offer the usual platitudes I would never say to myself. Ah, me.

Her art isn't saving her, as it has saved me. I think hers comes from a social place, not an existential one.

Doing my best...

Astounding

A good day continues ... H out for lunch, I am here cooking ... quinoa salad, vegie soup, turkey meatloaf ... jazz, Sketch ... brooding ... all good things.

Day Dreamer

Day Dreamer

Maybe there's still time
to wake each morning
in a small desert town
where I stay warm
and walk everywhere
and am greeted by
new acquaintances
getting used to seeing me
in the same place
at the same time
you can set your watch
by my routine

and everybody regards me
as a quiet pleasant old man
new to town but welcome
and no one has a hint
of the extraordinary activity
raging in my head

where fictional characters
are screaming for their stories
to be released

Nerd nation wins in OT!

Great game. I prefer women's bb, few dunks, less testosterone (though it increases every year: soon humans will be warriors or corporate managers, with a few artists hiding under rocks).

Mornings

I've always been a morning man, writing here often on this theme. Until I entered the surrealistic stress of recent months. Lately I've dreaded mornings, knowing the day would require repeating much and new surprises would bring stress and grief. My only peace was in bed at night.

Strange then to feel good this morning! Even gained 3 lbs.

Part is the day's terror has become routine. And H is handling her own terror with less hysteria. Maybe this is progress.

Early delight

UConn women at Stanford tonight. Gotta root for underdog nerd nation!

Only one doc appt this week. H, who came to bed after midnight, still in bed. Rest is rest, whenever you get it. But she'll rise with guilt for sleeping in and nag on me for letting her. Ah, me.

Canzano story

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2014/11/canzano_her_name_is_brenda_tra.html

Important story on OSU rape case, 16 years ago.

What!?!?!?

A second person bought Varmints ... this is more atypical consumer behavior than my cynicism can take ha ha ...

Say what?

eine 45-minütige schwarze Komödie übersetzt und frei adaptiert von russischen Vladimir Koshkov Original in Italienisch, in einer Moskauer Radiostation Tag der amerikanischen Erstschlag, 3m1f, Charles Deemer (Dramatiker, Schriftsteller, Drehbuchautor, 1939-_) “.

This apparently refers to a one-act play I wrote many years ago using the pseudonym Vladimir Koshkov and posing as the translator (American audiences accepted more experimental work using this mask). Feeling like old home week with all this decades old work popping up here and there.

Weather

Pdx, freezing rain
Tucson, 76 and sunny
Sigh

2 obscure sales

Ah, how little it takes! Two of my more esotetic, obscure works sold at Amazon today: The Chekhov Hyperdrama, 3 essays in prep for tackling my Magnum Opus; and Varmints, a libretto in need of music. Hardly what a typical reader would pick up. Hooray for atypical readers!

 By the way, cheers to Terry Simons and Round Bend Press for publishing Varmints. Pretty special, that decision.