Ponies!

Ana and Jose took great pictures Jake, Sparky and their new friend Ladybug when saw them on Thanksgiving in Bemidji. Here is Ladybug looking demure.

Birdchick.blog has new pages of rabbit disapproval.

Limits

Yesterday I had a piano lesson. I love my piano lessons, but yesterday's was tough.
I have been diagnosed with "rotator cuff impingement" syndrome which means, for the moment, that the left side of my upper body hurts like the dickens. I'm getting physical therapy, but I have been told not to do certain movements, and that I must collaborate in my healing by faithfully doing what the Physical Therapist recommends! So piano practice has been limited to right hand only, and I am working on observing how I sit, move, breathe and perform all kinds of basic actions in order to begin healing. As this situation is a result of an underlying chronic pain condition, I know there will be no quick fix, but I also know that healing is possible.

So I will have to seek inspiration in the playing of others for the moment.Hhere is a wonderful story about the "Mozart Project" that I heard on NPR yesterday while I was driving home, wondering if I'd have to give up my dream of playing the piano again. It was so inspiring to hear these two musicians converse about the experience of playing together and working together on this wonderful music.

Then, of course, I could learn to play Mozart by other means:

Urban Wildlife in Minneapolis

The weather is so mild for this time of year, we had to take a walk. It's a little over 3 miles around a lake in the middle of the city. We went clockwise. Heading in the other direction, we passed lots of folks walking, running, on skates, bikes, skateboards, skate-skis (no snow yet), in strollers, and on the ends of leashes. On the other ends were a parade of dogs: dachshunds, Great Danes, Scotties (black and white--or are those Westies?) a Pug, a few Huskies, your garden-variety yellow lab, Cocker Spaniels, a Standard Poodle, a Collie, the smallest Yorkie in existence, more we can't remember. In the water there were Canadian geese, mallards, and some coots. Seagulls at the end of a dock seemed to be plotting something (I've never been fond of those birds). We caught fragments of conversations, some in languages other than English. About two-thirds of the way around, we saw a creature swimming toward shore. It wasn't a bird, and didn't look like a dog. Not a turtle either, there was some kind of motion in the water behind its head that indicated paws or a tail. Beaver? as it approached, with a mouthful of bright green weeds, we realized it was an otter. It wasn't very large. We were standing at a site where the lake water entered an underground passage to a nearby lake or a creek, and it ducked and swam in. What a marvelous surprise!

Bathtub travels

Ever drop a book in the tub? Do you remember which book?

I managed to fish out The City of Falling Angels fast enough to be able to read it to the end, but now it looks as if I'd dropped it into a Venetian canal. It's a great vicarious travel book. If I can't go back to Venice soon, I must look for it in films and novels.

Right before I moved to Minneapolis, years ago, I read War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, and realized later how much the Twin Cities were the heart of the novel. Long ago, I carried George Elliot's Romola around Florence. Most recently, I went to London so I reread Orlando before I left, Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor while I was there, and China Mieville's King Rat on the plane home.

Here's a brilliant site for travel-loving readers, or novel-loving voyagers: Londoner Jeff Cotton's Fictional Cities: Venice, Florence, London. I shall look later to see if there is a similar site for San Francisco--there must be.

Turkey Day in Bemidji

Great-grandma Jean with Gabi, Tristan and Lydia. Because the group was so big, tables were set up in the garage and there was plenty of room for all. We were twenty-five in all, including the six kids under 9. If the whole family had been there, there would have been around 40 people.

Carving the turkey: Jacques and Bailey wait patiently for their share of Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, of course, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, corn pudding (yum), jello, various other treats, and dynamite chocolate chip cookes, pumpkin dump cake, peanut brittle.
Some folks played a brisk game of kickball/soccer after, but some of us stayed inside where it was warm.
We had a wonderful time. But it is worth reading the Smithsonian article that tells what really happened at the first "Thanksgiving."



We visited the horses: Jake and Sparky are Percherons. Chip is hoping Jose has a treat.

Cristina Rivera Garza

I don't recall how I discovered NO HAY TAL LUGAR, a blog by Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza--I think I was looking for someone else. I was immediately enchanted by her writing, especially when I discovered her collaboration with others on "la semana de la mujer invisible" (this reminded me of James Tiptree, Jr aka Alice Sheldon's classic story "The Women That Men Don't See").

Another collaborative project is "la semana inquietante (e internacional) de la mujer barbuda" which is documented at Un blog propio by Eve Gil.

CRG began blogging in 2003, in the beginning as part of a project for a novel, while teaching at UCSD, and continues now that she has returned to teach in Mexico. She has published poetry, essay and novels, for which she has won many awards, including the Premio Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in 2001 for the novel The image on the cover of the Tusquets edition of her book is a painting by Frida Kahlo called The suicide of Dorothy Hale.

Today I read her contribution to a collective column, a collaboration of a group of writers called 'La primera dama' that appears in El Universal. Her latest contribution, La bolsa o la vida, is a prose poem and also very funny. I must find her novels and read them!

Bad to the bone

As I am a Scorpio, I am not surprised at the results of this little test:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

"Kahlo's Contemporaries" and the Blaisten virtual museum of Mexican art

The big Frida show at the Tate in London drew a lot of attention; part of its legacy is that it allowed feminist scholars of Latin American art to create a marvelous show called "Kahlo's Contemporaries: Mexico-Women-Surrealism" at the University of Essex in 2005. The goal was not to claim these painters for surrealism, but to use the work of these painters to think about surrealism and vice-versa. Maria Izquierdo, for example, had a friendship with Antonin Artaud, usually not mentioned in studies of his work. Their dialogue had an impact on his writing about Mexico, and their contact had an influence on some of her paintings. I have not been able to find out much about her yet, but I'm intrigued by her story.

When I clicked on one of the teeny-tiny links at the bottom of the page, I discovered a treasure: the Museo Blaisten. This is a private collection, but it has been made accessible to the public in this virtual museum. You can use a Spanish or an English version. The site is organized into eight "rooms" that are both chronological and thematic: if you click on an image of a painting or sculpture, a descriptive text appears, and if you click on the image to enlarge it, a beautifully digitized image is viewable.

Another Mexican art site, this one about an exhibition called "Retratos: 2000 years of Mexican Art" is also worth a visit. I've seen the gorgeous but very expensive catalogue for sale at the Walker book store, but refrained from buying it. I will go visit it in a library.

Latest pictures out at the farm!

Louie feels right at home.

View from the kitchen window

Tile in the shower (colors are a little off).

R's room with lava lamp.

Kitchen before appliances and upper cabinets installed.

Rock in Latin America, Latin rock, rock en tu idioma, whaddaya call it?

In class today, we talked about the history of rock and roll (both in English and in Spanish) because our topic was rock music in Latin America (sometimes categorized as "rock en espanyol" and not to be confused with "Latin rock").

Just imagine me as Jack Black in School of Rock, with my flowchart on the blackboard.

I played some boogie woogie and jump blues cuts for the class to show them some of the original sounds, including Big Mama Thornton's version of "Hound Dog" which has a funky latin beat going on. We also recalled the Cuban influence on early music in the U.S. via New Orleans (the cinquillo rhythmic cell was the heart of ragtime). Louie Louie was a cha cha, says Ned Sublette, the author of Cuba and its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. The story of "Louie Louie" (no comma) is a version of the history of rock and roll: white musicians made the bucks off black musicians' work--and at least some the roots are in what Jelly Roll Morton called "the Spanish tinge"--the clave from Cuba, that is. Richard Berry, a black musician originally from New Orleans, wrote and recorded the song in the mid-fifties, using the bass line he heard in a song called "El loco Cha Cha." A lot of up-and-coming bands in the Northwest played it, and the version that hit No. 1 was by the Kingsmen, a white band, in 1963. In 1989, Berry played a gig in California that was filmed by folks who want to make a movie about the song. I was bummed that YouTube was down today so I couldn't show the clip (what does that say about teaching now?)

I reminded them that Santana used to be a jam rocker with a percussion player from Nicaragua who mixed up the Afro-Latin roots with the blues in a new way, not just the guy who had the comeback song "Smooth." I grew up on Santana's music--too young to go to Woodstock the year their first album came out, but he was from my home town, so we were loyal fans. My high school crowd also listened to Sly and the Family Stone, WAR ( "Lowriders") Tower of Power--the funky Bay Area sound.

So I used the projector to put up the Wikipedia page on the history of Rock and Roll because I wanted them to see how different the English and the Spanish versions of the history are (although they both have their qualities). They started to laugh. I couldn't see what they were looking at, but then they pointed out that between the time when I found the link this morning and class, someone had edited the page so that the first line was "kevin is a penis." Oh, I love the Internets as a teaching device!

UPDATE: VivirLatino waxes nostalgic about "rock en tu idioma"

Los Lobos

anselma/bestel mar - Rowwen Heze and Los Lobos

I love Los Lobos! Here we see a meeting of the accordion-roots of a lot of conjunto/northern mexican musics.
Rowen Hezze (or Heze) is apparently a Dutch band that sings in the Limburg variant of Dutch (from the south). I googled their name, and came up with tons of pages in Dutch, and one post about how they opened for the Rolling Stones. I was reminded of a film I rented recently, Schulze gets the blues, a masterpiece of cinematography, and a story about how music can change your life.
I'd like to write a lot more about the film, or anything else for that matter, but I have just finished grading 30 student journals, and must now finish grading 20 papers and 20 journals from another class (I'm about halfway through that stack). Then we'll be in the home stretch of the semester. Now, if I could only decide which books to order for a new class I'll be teaching in the Spring.

Ellen Willis: hope and action

This image is from the Women's Liberation Studies Archives for Action Catalogue.
I was very sad to read the news of Ellen Willis' death over at Michael Berube's blog. I was also a fan of her writing, but I admit I didn't really know that much about her political history. With the post Ellen Willis presente! , Bitch l Lab does us the great service of rounding up links to the many tributes to Willis, and to places where we can read some of her writing, such as last year's wonderful essay "Ghosts, Fantasies and Hope" (in Dissent). Her home page at NYU where she was a professor of journalism, after a pioneering career as music critic and essayist, has many links to her essays as well. I want to learn more about her involvement with Redstockings, which she co-founded with Shulamith Firestone. RadGeek's post reminds us of the importance of direct action as well as the kinds of electoral work we've just witnessed. We have to remember this history, with all its mistakes, because how else will we learn?
I'm going to take a walk down the block to the bookstores and the library later this morning to see if I can find copies of her books. I won't have time to read them until I've graded the 20 papers, and read the 50 student journals I managed to have all due at the same time, but I like to have a destination for my walk.
Update: I found used copies of No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays and Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock-and-Roll. While I was at it, I got Joanna Russ' To Write Like a Woman and Nancy K Miller's Getting Personal.

Guinness meets Bella!

Happy dance!

The kids are doing a pre-Halloween/post-birthday Happy Dance.
Some of the things I'm happy about today:
Keith Ellison is not only an African-American and a Muslim, he is an advocate for peace who ran a positive campaign in the face of race-baiting and dirty tricks. He has the support of a broad coalition of people who respect him for his out-spoken, fearless, and compassionate views, and for the hard work he has done representing the poor in his district.
Organic farmer Jon Tester defeated Republican Conrad Burns in Montana in one of the two close Senate races that gives the majority to the Democrats in the Senate as well as the house. I am thrilled that someone who has been successful at turning a family farm operation into a success by making the change to organic farming is going to Washington. He has a perspective on fair trade and the experience of farming that could really make a difference.

Ever wonder what it's like to be a poll worker? SFMike at Civic Center gives us the behind-the-scenes scoop. And yet, it works, in its messy way.

A little about Eliot Spitzer, the new Gov. of New York, who has successfully prosecuted organized crime, of both the Gambino family and Wall Street varieties. He will shake things up in Albany!

Claire McCaskill won in Missouri -YES!

This falls into the category of why I love San Francisco so much! There will be a lot of hysterical talk on the right about San Francisco values, and frenzy about the fact that the next Speaker of the House has a functioning uterus, but let's not forget that in SF itself, a lot of people see Pelosi as not bold enough. But that's because they aren't afraid. We need people who aren't afraid to stand up to the vicious attacks of the moneyed interests who will try to smear and intimidate them, as was the case with Chris Daly. Sarah Low Daly's speech on election night says what so many of us say in the privacy of our own homes, in those moments when we yell at the TV set.

Robert (unindicted co-conspirator) Gates

is Bush's nominee to replace Rumsfeld.
(Whoa! Flashback to Iran-Contra, dude)

Today in class we warmed up by talking about voting and elections. That led to a conversation about who Daniel Ortega is, what was the Sandinista revolution, what was Iran-Contra, what was going on in Central and South America in the 70s. These kids were not even born yet when some of this was happening, but the same freakin' criminals are revolving through the administration. LondonYank over at DKos calls it Bush's Felon Job Replacement Program:
"Bush II must be an inspiration to criminals everywhere that they can be tomorrow's leaders! Who better to preach patriotism, democracy and human rights than those who committed espionage, perjury, fraud and covered up torture and massacres?"

Seriously, read Senator Harkin's testimony in the 1991 Congressional record in opposition to Gates' nomination as CIA Director, from the Congressional Record:
"...Mr. President, I also have doubts and questions about Mr. Gates' role in the secret intelligence sharing operation with Iraq. Robert Gates served as assistant to the Director of the CIA in 1981 and as Deputy Director for Intelligence for 1982 to 1986. In that capacity he helped develop options in dealing with the Iran-Iraq war, which eventually involved into a secret intelligence liaison relationship with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Gates was in charge of the directorate that prepared the intelligence information that was passed on to Iraq. He testified that he was also an active participant in the operation during 1986. The secret intelligence sharing operation with Iraq was not only a highly questionable and possibly illegal operation, but also may have jeopardized American lives and our national interests. The photo reconnaissance, highly sensitive electronic eavesdropping and narrative texts provided to Saddam, may not only have helped him in Iraq's war against Iran but also in the recent gulf war. Saddam Hussein may have discovered the value of underground land lines as opposed to radio communications after he was give our intelligence information. That made it more difficult for the allied coalition to get quick and accurate intelligence during the gulf war. Further, after the Persian Gulf war, our intelligence community was surprised at the extent of Iraq's nuclear program. One reason Saddam may have hidden his nuclear program so effectively from detection was because of his knowledge of our satellite photos. What also concerns me about that operation is that we spend millions of dollars keeping secrets from the Soviets and then we give it to Saddam who sells them to the Soviets. In short, the coddling of Saddam was a mistake of the first order."

There's plenty more. Alternet just ran a three-part series by journalist Robert Parry, who investigated many of these stories in the 80s. (Read parts I, II and III). His account of the original "October Surprise" is a reminder that the roots of today's Iraq war go way, way back.

But what I heard on NPR today was a reporter saying "uh huh" while a former CIA employee of Gates praised him for being pragmatic and "an excellent bureaucrat."
UPDATE: Democracy Now talks to journalist Robert Parry and former CIA analyst Mel Goodman about Robert Gates' shady record.

Rumsfeld says goodbye, and we say goodbye to Rumsfeld

Kingdom Hospital - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

OK, folks, this is it.

Today is a day to turn to positive voices, to remember how hard so many people are working for constructive change. The folks over at Dharma Bums have a lovely post today that inspires me. We can focus on the media hysteria or we can look at all of the ways that ordinary people are also working hard to make a difference. I choose to spend today looking for inspiring examples.
My voting place is the nearby Unitarian Church, and the folks who volunteer there are always sweet and efficient. I have never had to wait in a really long line, probably because I am able to go when a lot of other people are at work, but that may be different today because I expect the turnout to be HUGE in my area. I am so excited because it looks very likely that Keith Ellison will be my representative to Congress, Amy Klobuchar will be my next Senator, and Mark Ritchie will succeed in his goal of bringing the office of Secretary of State back to a Minnesota tradition of clean elections. Many folks I know have done some volunteering, hosted a house party to help people get to know candidates better, of participated in some kind of public action. Even a friend who is a self-described conservative evangelical Christian has spent the last year working almost full time with Impeach for Peace to persuade his friends that their values are not being represented by the folks currently in office.

Tonight I'll keep the TV and the radio off, and help my daughter with her Science Fair experiment. I can check the local election results at MN Campaign Report Here is a picture of my polling place--I didn't have to wait in a line, and the folks who work there have done this before, so all went smoothly.

"Teacher Idealist"

Apparently I come out as eNFj on those personality sorter dealies. Surprise, surprise.

Varmints

(homage to Twisty)
A squirrel, perhaps this very squirrel, managed to chew its way through the wood of the soffit under the gutters last week. We discovered this when we heard the scrabbling and scampering. It sounded as if it were coming from the front of the building, so I went outside. I saw the hole, with the squirrel head poking out. We looked at each other for a while. I expected him to take a sip of his coffee, he looked so at home.

Various friends told me tales of squirrel invasions past, of chewed-through insulation leaving live wires and terrible fire danger, of hundreds, no thousands! of dollars paid to trap and release squirrels. Here's a great video about squirrel removal by some of the folks over there at the MN Stories link to the right.
A few years ago, a squirrel had chewed through the plastic panel of one of my window air-conditioners and made its way into my place, storing hazelnuts all over the house until I found him and chased him out. I managed to squirrel-proof my place, but this woman had a different problem. By the way, when you click on the video at this link, you have to sit through an ad by another varmint. We're hoping to remove him from the governor's mansion this Tuesday.

What's going on in Oaxaca?

There is a lot I want to write about Oaxaca, but work is relentless this week. So this brief post is a way of saving some links to news sources, and getting started.
If you read Spanish, Mexican newspaper La Jornada has a detailed report on the battle in the streets of Oaxaca between federal police (the PFP) and citizens. An editorial in La Jornada reports that the people of Oaxaca have united to repel the militarization of the struggle. But other sources from Oaxaca and in the mainstream press characterize the situation as the forces of law and order trying to quell a mob, stirred up by "outside agitators" who have taken over the city. Who to believe? Many people who have been to Oaxaca know it as a beautiful historically fascinating tourist destination. It is also one of the poorest states in Mexico, one in which indigenous people continue to suffer neglect and oppression at the hands of a regional oligarchy, that is supported by the PRI in alliance with the PAN parties on the national level. Over the last few years,those who have demanded change have been met with political assassinations, disappearances. Rape and torture have been reported at the hands of police and paramilitary thugs.

For the person who wants to know more about what is happening, and understand the context of the struggle, US mainstream media sources are useless because of the intense focus on the upcoming elections and the lamentable state of international reporting in general. The coded language of "anarchy" and "restoring order" along with the lack of context make it appear that violent protesters are disturbing the peace. So we have to turn to alternative sources such as Democracy Now! where we can read an interview with journalist and educator-activist Gustavo Esteva. Global Exchange publishes this timeline and information on how to take action.
Why are the teachers on strike? what is APPO? why do they want the governor to resign? what relation does this have to the recent elections? What role has the U.S. government taken in this situation? What do the people think?
The media sources in Mexico are also highly politicized and partisan, Global Voices has a good round-up on the coverage, including that of bloggers of various perspectives.


NarcoNews posts material in both English and Spanish and is a good place to return for ongoing coverage

IndyBay, a Bay Area independent media aggregator carries news about US solidarity actions in support of the people of Oaxaca, as well as news updates.